militia movement

▪ American movement

      in the United States, movement of radical paramilitary groups whose members generally accept highly conspiratorial interpretations of politics and view themselves as defenders of traditional freedoms against government oppression. Membership in such groups surged during the 1990s, peaking at some 900 groups and at least 40,000 members (some claims put the number of members at more than 250,000) by the middle of the decade. After Timothy McVeigh (McVeigh, Timothy), a supporter of the militia movement's ideals, exploded a massive homemade bomb in Oklahoma City (Oklahoma City bombing) in 1995, killing 168 people, public revulsion and a government crackdown dramatically reduced the size and influence of the militia movement by the beginning of the 21st century.

      Militias are by no means a new phenomenon in the United States. Historical parallels include the network of fascist (fascism) and “shirt” movements in the mid-1930s and the well-armed rightist Minutemen of the early 1960s. New militia groups were founded in the late 1970s and flourished despite laws in some 40 states that prohibited militias, paramilitary groups, or both. Some of these groups espoused fascist or anti-Semitic (anti-Semitism) and other racist (racism) views—such as the belief that the United States is ruled by a Jewish-dominated tyrannical Zionist Occupational Government (the “ZOG”)—and promoted neo-Nazi literature, such as William Pierce's The Turner Diaries (1978; published under Pierce's pseudonym, Andrew Macdonald), a fictional account of how a militant anti-Semitic group uses violence to achieve world dominance.

      Some militia groups also accepted the eccentric constitutional doctrines of the Common Law movement, which denies the authority of all governmental institutions above the level of the county. Even the militia movement's least-committed members tended to believe that the United States government undermines American liberties, in part through its acquiescence in an international totalitarian regime, the so-called New World Order. Government oppression, they argue, manifests itself in the imposition of income taxes, gun control legislation, and environmental restrictions on private property, especially in the western United States.

      In the 1980s the militia movement conceived of the American public as an “unorganized militia” that would supplement both the national armed forces and the National Guard of each state. As new private militias trained and armed themselves, however, they increasingly adopted overtly antigovernment policies. During the 1980s increasing numbers of people were attracted to survivalism, a movement that advocated a retreat to self-sufficient and well-armed rural settlements in anticipation of a general breakdown of society. Survivalists often warned of the imminent collapse of the United States as a result of nuclear attack.

      Subsequently, various antigovernment factions, including survivalists, members of the Common Law movement, white supremacists, and armed opponents of taxes and abortion, coalesced in the “Patriot movement,” which may well have attracted millions of sympathizers. Supporters of the Patriot movement were able to disseminate and discuss their ideas widely and cheaply through the Internet, which became accessible to the general public in the early 1990s.

      Various events during this period served to galvanize the Patriot movement and its burgeoning militias. In 1992, at Ruby Ridge, the Idaho property of white separatist Randy Weaver, Weaver's wife and son were killed during a controversial standoff with law enforcement agents. In the following year, the Branch Davidian compound near Waco, Texas, was raided by federal agents; following a protracted standoff, during which agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation attempted to enter the building, some 80 members of the group died in a fire. From the perspective of the militia movement, both events demonstrated the federal government's persecution and killing of dissidents. The militias subsequently attracted legions of supporters, especially in Western states but also in some Midwestern states, notably Michigan. At its peak, the Northern Michigan Regional Militia claimed more than 1,000 committed members and thousands more sympathizers.

      McVeigh's terrorist bombing of a federal building in Oklahoma City on April 19, 1995—the date was chosen to commemorate the Battles of Lexington and Concord (Lexington and Concord, Battles of) in 1775 in the American Revolution and the fiery end of the siege of the Branch Davidian compound in 1993—was a turning point for the American militia movement. McVeigh and his associates had been connected with militia groups in Michigan and elsewhere, and although no militia group was specifically linked to the crime, there was a widespread impression that the bombing was the logical outcome of the kind of antigovernment paranoia the militias fomented.

      During the next several years militia groups and leaders were regularly villified in popular culture. In the new hostile atmosphere, many of the militias' relatively moderate supporters abandoned the movement. Following a government crackdown, the number of active militia groups fell to about 200 by the end of the 1990s.

John Philip Jenkins

Additional Reading

Morris Dees and James Corcoran, Gathering Storm (1996), details the threats posed by the militia movement. James William Gibson, Warrior Dreams (1994), discusses the broader paramilitary and survivalist culture from which the militias emerged. Lou Michel and Dan Herbeck, American Terrorist: Timothy McVeigh & the Oklahoma City Bombing (2001), explains McVeigh's political and intellectual world and his relationship to the militia movement. Kenneth S. Stern, A Force upon the Plain: The American Militia Movement and the Politics of Hate (1996), examines the government response to the militia movement in the mid-1990s.

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